Holiday Inn Express & Suites Alamogordo by IHG — Hotel in Alamogordo

Breakfast staff was fantastic, or this would be a 1 star review. The elevator was not working our entire stay, the Wi-Fi wouldn't stay connected to my phone, and ultimately, the worst thing was that the cleaning crew deprioritized our room. For what reasons, I don't know, but it was a huge headache during the trip.

We were here the week of Thanksgiving, Sat-Sat. The room was adequate when we arrived.

We didn't have housekeeping visit our room until Thanksgiving.

I thought maybe they saw our "do not disturb" on the door before we went to breakfast at the beginning of the trip was the problem, so on Tuesday morning, I went to the front desk and asked when the cleaning crew comes through. The front desk person said that they don't even arrive until 9:00. So Tuesday morning, we made sure to remove the tag at 9:00.

No housekeeping.

Wednesday, we didn't even put up the do not disturb and made sure to leave the room by 9:00 a.m.

No housekeeping.

If you're doing the math, this means 4 days of no clean towels and no trash pickup. I had to call the front desk for towels, and the woman that brought them to our room seemed put out. When I pointed to the pile of towels she could take, she said, " No gloves." and left.

The next day was Thanksgiving. I shouldn't have made the assumption that asking the front desk, as well as specifically calling out the lack of housekeeping to our room the night before would have changed anything. I asked the front desk if there was housekeeping on Thanksgiving, and they said of course!

If you've read this far, I'm sure you will be super surprised to know that they did not clean our room again on Thanksgiving. Luckily, my husband had to go back to the room around 2:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving, and he noticed the room hadn't been cleaned. He went to the front desk just as it looked like the cleaning crew was leaving the hotel. They were called back in and told to clean our room. We had new towels, and they picked up the old ones, along with the trash, but it was obvious they didn't wipe anything down or vacuum. Just the bare minimum.

We come to Alamogordo fairly regularly to visit family, and we will not be staying at this...

Stayed here for 2 nights in a large, clean and comfortable double queen suite. The hotel while quite close to White Sands Blvd was totally quiet with no highway or train noise. That part of the stay was positive and based on that I'd consider staying here again.

The breakfast was okay, nothing special, mostly pre-packaged bars, muffins, cereals, etc.

The not-so-positive things were related to guest mask compliance, and hotel staff professionalism.

Of the many hotels I've stayed at around the U.S. since the pandemic began this is the first and only one that I had concerns about guests' mask complilance. There were numerous instances of more than one guest not wearing a mask inside the hotel, including one man who blatantly flaunted it apparently during his entire stay. I informed the front desk twice about this - including once when the person in question walked right by the front desk and they said nothing to him. I understand that mask enforcement is a difficult and undesirable role to be in for any front-line employee, but if the policy is in place and it's well-signed (as it was here) then either enforce it or pull the signs down.

The other issue around what I call staff professionaisim are this. I observed more than once one of the front desk staff smoking right in front of the main entrance, blowing smoke for any unfortunate guest to inhale. If they want to smoke, there should be a designated area and away from an entrance.

The second issue was, upon informing the front desk about the mask issue mentioned above, one of the two front desk staff was not wearing a mask himself. This young man just stared at me while I was conversing with the other front desk associate who was wearing a mask.

These issues definitely would give me pause about both recommending this hotel and staying here again...

Overall hotel stay was fine. We had 2 rooms booked for 2 nights. Good location. However, my young adult son (who has medical issues) accidentally left his wallet in the room upon check out. I am thankful that the staff contacted us later in the day to let us know. Unfortunately, we were hours away by then and asked if it could be mailed home to us. We sent in the required Credit Card Authorization form as requested to the manager, Dennis Yarborough. Sadly, It took Dennis EIGHT days (after many daily calls to the hotel) for him to put the wallet in the mail back to us, Meanwhile, my son flew home (amazing credit to TSA for helping him through security) and started a new job - with no ID and no credit cards (my son acknowledged his fault in the carelessness of leaving it behind). Even after the wallet was mailed, I was supposed to receive email confirmation and a tracking number. That took 2 additional days of calling the hotel to get that information. In the end, we did get his wallet back - unsurprisingly, ALL THE CASH WAS GONE. And I'm sure all the bank and credit cards have been compromised, and maybe his identification. Good lesson learned by my son. Very poor professional lacki daisy response by management. It shouldn't take 8 days to put the wallet in the mail and 2 more days to let us know you followed through - especially when we were calling every day.

On a side note - the older lady working the breakfast area was beyond amazing (wish I had caught her name) both mornings we were there. She deserves a raise for sure!! So kind, acutely aware, and 100% focused on the guests, food availability,...